In a water distribution system, valves are located on all buried water lines ranging from 3 inches in diameter to 24 inches in diameter and are also located in water lines which are of even greater diameters. In most cases, such valves are buried 3 feet to 8 feet below the surface of the ground and are accessed by a valve box configured as a pipe which is 6 to 8 inches in diameter extending to the surface of the ground. This allows someone to operate the valves from above with a long T-handle wrench. The T-handle wrenches have a 2 inch square drive that fits 2 inch square operating nuts for the valves.
Municipal water systems utilize thousands of in-ground valves within a single system. Some of these valves are deemed “critical valves.” These critical valves typically control different pressure zones in different demand areas which are generally portions of the water system which have numerous addresses and require different levels of service. In order for a water system to function properly, these valves are either in a closed or open position. If a person operates the wrong valve, there can be serious damage or water outages to areas within a city. Accordingly, it is very important that these valves not be operated by an unauthorized person. In order to avoid these difficulties, some municipalities or counties put signs on valve box pipes warning that the valves are critical valves and should not be tampered with. In order to further drive this point home, some municipalities install pieces of wood or plastic pipe in the valve access boxes to deter access to the valves. In spite of these precautions, users of city water, such as but not limited to contractors, on occasion decide to open or close valves which can result in water being denied to downstream customers or excessive water being delivered to downstream customers which can result in backups and unwanted disturbances to an entire water system. Consequently, there is a need to minimize the likelihood that a non-authorized person might tamper with critical in-ground valves.